This book rediscovers a spiritual way of preparing the actor towards experiencing that ineffable artistic creativity defined by Konstantin Stanislavski as the creative state.
Filtered through the lens of his unaddressed Christian Orthodox background, as well as his yogic or Hindu interest, the practical work followed the odyssey of the artist, from being oneself towards becoming the character, being structured in three major horizontal stages and developed on another three vertical, interconnected levels. Throughout the book, Gabriela Curpan aims to question both the cartesian approach to acting and the realist-psychological line, generally viewed as the only features of Stanislavski’s work.
This book will be of great interest to theatre and performance academics as well as practitioners in the fields of acting and directing.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Part 1 – Theoretical Reflections
Chapter 1 – PAR Methodology and the Main Research Questions
Chapter 2 – The Creative State from the Orthodox Faith to Oriental Thought
Chapter 3 – Humanism, Spirituality, Religion
Chapter 4 – Stanislavsky’s Concept of ‘Nature’ and the Occult
Chapter 5 – Spiritual Principles
Chapter 6 – From Spiritual to Creative Principles
Part 2 – Practical Explorations – Practice as Research Case Study
Chapter 7 – From Theory to Practice – Levels of Work
Chapter 8 – The First Stage of Practice – An Actor’s Work on Their ‘Self’
Chapter 9 – The Second Stage – An Actor’s Work on Their Role
Chapter 10 – ‘Becoming’ the Character
Chapter 11 – Rehearsing with Active Analysis
Chapter 12 – The Third Stage – Performing as a State of Being
About the Author :
Gabriela Curpan was awarded her PhD from Goldsmith, University of London. She is a Romanian practitioner with over twenty years of acting experience, a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton, and a visiting lecturer, teaching acting techniques in Staffordshire University.
